When I was a little girl my paw-paw
used to bring the moss in from the swamps and up the bayou on his
flat boat and then he dumped it in piles and we had to keep it wet
all the time. It had to be continually turned, you had to turn it
all the time to keep the bottom from getting hot. They used buckets
of water from the ditches and bayous 'cause they didnt have no
hosepipes in those days. And, oh, how the children did love it 'cause
they got to play in the water. Sometimes though it got out of hand
and paw-paw would fuss at us. Then when the black crust fell off the
moss they hung it on the cyprus [sic] fence or string clothes lines
for it. Then the man from the gin would come around and buy it. I
didnt sleep on a cotton bed until 1931 when I got married cause all
we had when I was a girl were moss mattresses. But my husbands
family they raised a little cotton so they had cotton
mattresses.

--Anonymous 80-year-old woman, Lafourche Parish

Unit Introduction

Folklorists use the
term material
culture to describe the vast array of traditionally made
"stuff" in our lives, from afghans to Zulu coconuts,
boats to whirligigs. Like "reading" a landscape in
Unit IV,
"reading" material culture makes students more aware
of their surroundings and the importance of learning, teaching,
and preserving traditional skills. They learn the value of traditional
things and the worth of learning and passing on skills. They
gain a deeper sense of place and of their communities' role in
history and culture. This unit asks students to look carefully
around them, to take measure of things, to identify folk artists
and artisans in their communities, to learn a skill, and to teach
a skill.

Process and product differ.
Students will examine artifacts, but they will also study
the process of creating material culture. Like other types of
folklife, vernacular
(everyday) material culture reveals a great deal about place,
time, and folk groups.
And, like other types of folklife, we tend to overlook vernacular
material culture as we go about our lives. We don't often take
note of the aging barn, fresh peach cobbler, handmade crawfish
traps, newly braided cornrows, or tightly folded notes that students
secretly palm off in class. All these and countless other things
are objects that folklorists study--especially the context
of the people who make and use them and the processes of making
and using them.

What will students learn
from studying artifacts and traditional skills? They will learn
concepts of continuity and change (motif
and variation), since the makers of some
artifacts keep
the same technique, materials, and style over generations, while
others glibly improvise on old traditions or create new traditions.
They will learn where traditional skills and material culture
fit in their own lives, their communities, and the state.

Louisiana's diverse folk
groups, history, and geography affect material culture, just
as they affect other types of folklife. Natural materials
indigenous to a region influence what people can make, when they can
make something, and how they vary a tradition that comes from
elsewhere. Again, the complex process of creolization
influences the material culture of the state, yet some traditions
remain more unchanged than others.

The many online resources
such as slide shows, essays, and websites are only one way for
students to explore material culture from all regions of Louisiana.
They will also identify and study material culture in their homes
and communities. And they will explore the concepts of
utility,
aesthetics, and
context
of material culture from the familiar, such as foodways,
to more obscure objects and skills new to students. Students
will explore past and current foodways and food production and
distribution in their communities and around the state.